Ezekiel 45
1 When you cast lots to divide up the land as an inheritance, you must make an offering to Yahweh; this offering will be a holy part of the land, twenty-five thousand cubits in length, and ten thousand cubits in width. It will be holy, all its area round about.
“‘When the land of Israel is divided [among the twelve tribes], you must present to me, Yahweh, one part of the land to be a sacred district. It will be (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (6.7 miles/10.6 km.) wide. That entire area will be (holy/set apart for me).
2 From this there will be a five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits square surrounding the holy place, with a surrounding border fifty cubits in width.
Part of that area, (875 feet/265 meters) on each side, will be for the temple area. An additional strip of ground, (87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters) wide, will be left empty all around the temple area.
3 From this area you will measure a portion that is twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width; it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place.
Inside that sacred district, measure a section (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide.
4 It will be a holy place in the land for the priests who serve Yahweh, who come near Yahweh to serve him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy area for the holy place.
That section will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests who work in the temple and who come near to me to serve me. It will be a place for their houses as well as being a holy place for the temple.
5 So it will be twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width, and it will be for towns for the Levites who serve in the house.
An area (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide will be for the descendants of Levi who work in the temple. That area will belong to them, and they will be permitted to build cities there to live in.
6 You will designate an area for the city, five thousand cubits in width and twenty-five thousand in length, that will be next to the area reserved for the holy place; this city will belong to all the house of Israel.
Alongside that sacred area will be a section of land that is (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (1.7 miles/2.65 km.) wide. It will be for a city where anyone in Israel [MTY] will be permitted to live.
7 The prince's land will be on both sides of the area reserved for the holy place and the city. It will be to their west and to their east. The length will correspond to the length of one of those portions, from the west to the east.
The king will have two sections of land; one will be on the western side of the sacred district and other will be on the eastern side of the sacred district. The one on the western side will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea. The one on the eastern side will extend east to the eastern end of the country. The eastern and western borders of the king’s land will be next to the areas allotted to the tribes.
8 This land will be property for the prince in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people; instead, they will give the land to the house of Israel, for their tribes.
That land will be the land in Israel that belongs to the king. So, [because the kings will have their own land], they will no longer need to oppress my people and steal [land] from them. They will assign the remaining parts of the land to the people, giving a part to each tribe.
9 The Lord Yahweh says this: It is enough for you, princes of Israel! Remove violence and strife; do justice and righteousness! Quit your evictions of my people!—this is the Lord Yahweh's declaration.
This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You kings of Israel must stop acting violently and oppressing the people! You must do what is fair and right [DOU]. Stop taking land from the people!
10 You must have accurate scales, accurate ephahs, and accurate baths!
And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things.
11 The ephah and the bath will be the same amount, so that a bath will be a tenth of a homer; the ephah will be a tenth of a homer. Their measure will be corresponding to the homer.
The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters.
12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs; sixty shekels will make a mina for you.
When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’”
13 This is the contribution that you must present: A sixth of an ephah for every homer of wheat, and you will give a sixth of an ephah for every homer of barley.
“‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest.
14 The regulation offering of oil will be a tenth of a bath for every cor (which is ten baths), or for every homer, since a homer is also ten baths.
And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make.
15 One sheep or goat from the flock for every two hundred animals from the watered regions of Israel will be used for any burnt offering or peace offering to make atonement for the people—this is the Lord Yahweh's declaration.
Also, I, Yahweh, declare that you must take one sheep from each 200 sheep in your flocks in the pastures of Israel. Those things that you take to the king will be used with the offerings of things made from grain and for the offerings that will be completely burned and the offerings to maintain fellowship with me, offerings in order for me to forgive you for the sins that you have committed.
16 All the people of the land will give this contribution to the prince in Israel.
All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel.
17 It will be the prince's responsibility to furnish animals for the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the drink offerings at the festivals and the new moon celebrations, and on the Sabbath days—all the fixed festivals of the house of Israel. He will provide for the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings, and the peace offerings for atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.
The king must provide the animals to be completely burned on the altar, grain for the grain offerings, and wine for the wine offerings for the sacred festivals that I have appointed for the people of Israel—including the festivals to celebrate each new moon and the Sabbaths. He must provide [the animals for] the offerings for the people to become acceptable to me, grain for the grain offerings, animals to be completely burned [on the altar], and offerings to maintain fellowship with me, Yahweh, in order that I will forgive the Israeli people for their sins.
18 The Lord Yahweh says this: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you will take an unblemished bull from the herd and perform a sin offering for the sanctuary.
This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: On the first day of the first month [of each year] you must take one young bull that has no defects and [sacrifice it to] cause the temple to be acceptable to me.
19 The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorposts of the house and on the four corners of the border of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gate to the inner court.
The [Supreme] Priest must take some of the blood of the offering to cause people to become acceptable to me, and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the entry posts of the inner courtyard.
20 You will do this on the seventh of the month for each person's sin by accident or ignorance; in this way you will atone for the temple.
He must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for any people who sin without intending to sin or without realizing that what they did is sinful. By doing that you will purify the temple.
21 In the first month on the fourteenth day of the month, there will be for you a festival, a seven-day festival. You will eat unleavened bread.
In the first month of each year, on the 14th day of the month, you must start to celebrate the Passover Festival. The festival will last for seven days. During that time you must not eat bread made with yeast.
22 On that day, the prince will prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull as a sin offering.
On the first day, the king must provide a bull to be an offering for himself and for the all the other people of the country.
23 For the seven days of the festival, the prince will prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh: Seven bulls and seven unblemished rams each day for seven days, and a male goat each day as a sin offering.
And every day during those seven days he must provide seven young bulls and seven rams that have no defects, to be an offering for the people’s sins.
24 Then the prince will perform a food offering of an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram with a hin of oil for each ephah.
He must also provide a half bushel of grain to be an offering, and also four quarts of olive oil, for each bill and ram.
25 In the seventh month on the fifteenth day of the month, at the festival, the prince will perform offerings on these seven days: Sin offerings, burnt offerings, food offerings, and offerings of oil.
During the seven days of the festival [of Living in Temporary Shelters], which starts on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of each year, the king must provide the same things for offerings for the people’s sins, for offerings to be completely burned, for grain offerings, and the same amount of olive oil that he provided each day [during the Passover Festival].’”
